First National Plans To Expand Prepaid Card Initiative

First National Merchant Solutions has completed its pilot of a reloadable prepaid card for San Francisco Yellow Cab Cooperative drivers and is planning to roll out the service to the entire fleet of around 500 drivers in the next 50 to 90 days, a representative of Omaha, Neb.-based First National tells CardLine sister publication Cards&Payments. First National Bank of Omaha, First National Merchant Solutions' parent company, issues the cards. The Visa-branded cards, which bear the design and logo of Yellow Cab Cooperative, enable Yellow to reimburse drivers directly to their reloadable prepaid accounts for fares paid with credit and debit cards or corporate vouchers. Before the prepaid card initiative, drivers had to come to Yellow Cab garages for reimbursement of noncash payments. "Now the driver has a device that provides more-mainstream access to their money," says Scott McCormack, First National vice president. Funds appear in drivers' prepaid accounts within seconds of transactions settling, he says. Drivers can view and transfer funds online to their bank accounts, or they can withdraw cash for free from any Allpoint ATM. Bethesda, Md.-based Allpoint operates 35,000 surcharge-free ATMs across the United States and 3,874 ATMs in California. The 300 to 400 drivers who participated in the pilot did not report any problems with using the cards, McCormack says. Representatives of Yellow Cab Cooperative were not available for comment by CardLine's deadline. First National also serves as the merchant acquirer for Yellow's credit card transactions.

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